With the BBC looking to make cost cuts in late 2015, they decided to cut F1 from the programming and passed on the remaining three years of the contract to Channel 4, who agreed to run the races without commercial breaks.[1] On 12 February 2016, it was confirmed that the coverage's intro would include Fleetwood Mac's song "The Chain" like the BBC's coverage intros,[2] and the complete line-up was announced on 8 March 2016, having some of the people part of the BBC's latest line-up.[3][4]

Channel 4 first looked to take the exclusive rights of Formula 1 back in 2011, but failed when Sky and BBC put a higher bid in.